‘Too liberal, damaging to Israel, bending the moral truths of the Bible’

Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the late Pope Francis a man of deep faith and boundless compassion, who saw “great importance in fostering strong ties with the Jewish world.”

ALL ISRAEL NEWS Editor-in-Chief Joel Rosenberg was in the president’s residence when he made the remarks Monday afternoon, following the pontiff’s passing at age 88.

“I was there with my wife, Lynn, for the presentation of diplomatic credentials by a new U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, one of the most influential Evangelical Christians in the United States. As that ceremony began, President Herzog decided to take a moment to speak to the broader Christian community,” Rosenberg told Tal Heinrich, ALL ISRAEL NEWS Senior Correspondent.

“Obviously, Evangelicals and Roman Catholics have a number of theological disagreements, but we can certainly be kind to one another. And I appreciated President Herzog's comments. He is the president of the only Jewish state in the world, and I think he needs to be very respectful to Christians of all kinds, from all backgrounds. It's not his job to wade into theological disagreements or anything, but he was also quite gracious, given that many of us – myself included – have very sharp criticisms of Pope Francis over the years,” Rosenberg added.

One reason behind that is the pope’s “highly critical” tone against Israel during its seven-front war that started on Oct. 7, 2023.

Rosenberg explained that while the pope expressed compassion for the nation of Israel in the early days after the Hamas massacre, he began mounting severe criticisms of Israel not too long after.

“In fact, in a book that was released a few months ago, he called for an investigation to see if Israel was guilty of genocide,” Joel said. “To me, that's a moral abdication of his role.”

At the same time, the pope’s approach on the war was “very damaging to Israel,” according to Joel. He continued to welcome Palestinian representatives to the Vatican.

Rosenberg mentioned a famously controversial visit that the Pope made last year during Christmas to a ‘provocative Nativity display’ at the Vatican. It featured the baby Jesus lying in a manger draped with a Palestinian keffiyeh.

“This was a political statement being made by the Pope at Christmas, as part of this idea that is being promulgated by Palestinian political leaders and activists and radicals, that Jesus was a Palestinian instead of being Jewish, born in Israel, in the city of King David, Israel's most famous and beloved king,” Rosenberg stressed.

He told Heinrich that it is “morally imperative for any pope at any time to be saying that Jesus was Jewish, that he was an Israeli, that he loves Jews and Gentile people.”

According to Rosenberg, Pope Francis’ actions sort of gave a blessing to the idea of Jesus being a Palestinian Arab, and that his personal story reflects the suffering of the Palestinians.

“All those are political statements, and they don't comport with the truth of the scriptures. To do that in the middle of a war is wrong,” Joel argued.

The ALL ISRAEL NEWS Editor-in-Chief added that this is just one example of why even many Roman Catholics were very often critical of the late pope, who was widely considered to be pretty liberal.

“He was criticized widely and quite sharply by conservative theologians and laypeople within the Catholic Church on his issues of supporting gay and transgender priests – thinking how does that fit into the Bible,” Rosenberg said.

“Even if the culture is saying, ‘the Bible is wrong and outdated’ – the Bible is the Word of God in our view,” he emphasized.

Therefore, Rosenberg believes the pope’s legacy will be “very checkered,” not only in Israel and among the Jewish people, but also among Evangelicals and many Roman Catholics who thought he was “too liberal” in terms of “not sticking to the moral truths of the Bible.”

On a more positive note, Rosenberg mentioned Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt in 2017, in the aftermath of a deadly terrorist attack against the Coptic Christian community that killed dozens during Palm Sunday festivities at Saint Mark's Cathedral in Cairo.

Heinrich concluded their conversation with the words of Israeli President Herzog, who said of the pope: “I truly hope that his prayers for peace in the Middle East and for the safe return of hostages will soon be answered.”